Football Injury Leaves Suburban High School Player In Hospital For Week; Damar Hamlin’s collapse highlights the dangers of the sport

WESTMONT, Ill. (WLS) — The physical nature of football, with big bodies colliding at high speeds on every play, is a concern for anyone who puts on a helmet at any age.

Middle schooler Kamron Singleton’s final game of the season in October was almost his last.

“I couldn’t breathe, the air was being pushed out of me,” he said

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In just the 10th play of the first quarter against Westmont High vs. Aurora Central Catholic, he was seriously injured on a tackle.

“The next thing I know, I just feel someone hit me in the stomach,” she said.

“When the doctors tell you, ‘Oh, if your son had gotten on that bus, he could have gone into septic shock and he could have died. He couldn’t have been here,’ as a parent to hear that, it affects you,” said Shirkeya Wash, mother.

In the video provided by Wash, you can see his high school son being killed as a football flies over his head. ABC7 has paused the video before the crash.

READ MORE: What happened to Buffalo Bills’ Damar Hamlin? The doctor explains the player’s injury to the chest area

Her younger sister, a cheerleader, watched from the sidelines.

“Normally, you know, I’d let it happen. He gets it. But something just felt off,” said younger sister Keniya Singleton.

Kamron was removed from the game and hoped to eventually return to the game.

“But like the next 30, 45 minutes, I’m just still in the same position. I ended up throwing up. The ambulance came to check on me. They didn’t know what was going on,” he recalled.

“He was like really shaky breathing. And he was just like, ‘I’m cold. I’m just cold,” said her older sister, Kyla Singleton.

It was in his car, on the way home, when things took a painful turn.

“We were going over the train tracks and he was just yelling for us to stop,” he recalled.

Kamron was taken to the hospital, where his family learned that his injury was much worse than they imagined.

“Come to find out, Kamron had a tear in his small intestine, stomach to small intestine,” Wash said.

After three days in the intensive care unit and a total of a week in the hospital for reconstructive surgery, his plans to hopefully return to the field are undeterred.

“I still love the sport and I don’t want to stop,” Kamron said.